With Busway's Arrival, Changes To Downtown Hartford Streets

With busway's arrival, some changes were made to streets in downtown Hartford

HARTFORD — While the CTfastrak busway doesn't open for service until Saturday, residents near downtown Union Station have started noticing traffic changes to accommodate new bus routes.

This week, two one-way streets that run parallel to the transportation portal had their directions flipped: The formerly northbound Union Place was converted to southbound traffic, and the previously southbound High Street between Church and Asylum streets was switched to northbound.

The permanent changes were needed to allow the busway traffic and CT Transit buses to "efficiently" coexist in the area, said Keith Chapman, the city's interim public works director. The work also relates to the city's traffic overhaul around Bushnell Park that is part of the iQuilt plan, he said Thursday. The goal of iQuilt is to tie together downtown attractions and create a more walkable area.

Carmen Veal, an event planner who lives at the Hollander building on the corner of Asylum and High streets, said the direction changes caught her by surprise Tuesday morning after she sent her daughter off to school.

When the 12-year-old girl, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, returned in the afternoon, her school van driver encountered the suddenly northbound High Street and tried to safely get her into the apartment building, Veal said.

The driver was used to pulling up south at the curb closest to the Hollander's wheelchair-accessible entrance on High Street, an arrangement that fit perfectly with the van's passenger-side wheelchair lift, Veal said. This time, the driver parked along the opposite curb and momentarily stopped traffic so Veal's daughter could be wheeled across the street, she said.

Neighbors told her they also were unaware that the street's direction was changing, she said, adding, "It was sudden."

Shortly after The Courant asked the city Thursday if it had notified the public, the police department distributed a traffic advisory announcing the changes that happened earlier in the week.

Chapman said public works had the advisory ready last Friday, although a copy provided by a city spokeswoman showed that it was mostly emailed to other city officials Monday. Changes affecting the downtown traffic pattern also would have been part of a public hearing, he said.

"This has been on the plan for quite som e time — we just didn't know when it would happen," Chapman said. The busway preparing to open and the warmer weather "allowed the painting to be done for the directional change."

Deciding that crossing the road is too risky for her daughter, Veal said they are now using one of the building's alleyway emergency exits to get her on the van. That exit is not wheelchair-friendly and "requires a little muscle" to lift her daughter off a stoop, she said.

The city advisory "didn't reach the people it was supposed to reach," Veal said Thursday. "I am very annoyed."